The NFU’s deputy president, David Exwood, said that in the right location beavers could provide “certain benefits”, but raised concerns about beavers causing flooded fields, feeding on crops such as maize and felling trees including cricket bat willows, and the costs of managing them.
The first new release of wild beavers is expected to take place in Purbeck Heaths, a protected landscape spanning more than 8,000 acres which was designated as the UK’s first “super” nature reserve in 2020, under a licence granted to the National Trust.
Beavers are described as “ecosystem engineers”, he said, due to their impact on the water system, which creates habitats for water voles, water shrews, birds such as snipe and herons and a vast array of insects.
Defra also confirmed that all existing wild beaver populations, found in areas such as Cornwall, Dorset, Somerset and Kent, will be allowed to remain and expand naturally – in addition to the River Otter beavers who were given the right to stay in their south Devon home in 2020.
Natural England’s chairman Tony Juniper said: “This announcement is a very significant step in the long road for nature’s recovery in England, because of the real benefits that beavers create in the habitats they occupy and shape.”.
